


Blackbird

by inkshaming



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Amputated Character, Amputation, Depression, Disability, Fluff, Happy Ending, Healing, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Canon, Recovery, amputee!levi, canon-verse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-02
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-12 12:04:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4478642
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkshaming/pseuds/inkshaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The war is over and after the fall of the titans, humanity has begun to take its first steps beyond the walls...</p>
<p>...leaving Humanity's Strongest behind them to recover from medical complications that result in an amputation that leaves him feeling trapped, broken, and alone.</p>
<p>And he might have stayed that way too, if it hadn’t been for a certain green-eyed soldier who was too stubborn for his own good.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Echo in the Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ChristmasRivers](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChristmasRivers/gifts).



> When I started this work, I had no idea that it would literally change my life. I came here to share a story, to spin y'all a tale of healing and overcoming challenges and a quiet, selfless sort of love...
> 
> And by finishing this fic, I inadvertently set myself on a course to meet a friend - many friends, but one incredibly special friend in particular - who would share in this kind of story in my own life. I didn't know it at the time, but this fic would become the catalyst that led me to a friendship with my dear ChristmasRivers, who has become one of my closest friends and whose kindness and support and wisdom helped keep me above water during a really challenging time. 
> 
> Liz, I am so grateful for the fact that I got to meet you. You are an amazingly caring person and a blessing to have in my life. I promise I will write you your birthday fic - even if it takes me the rest of my fic writing career x_x - but I would also like you to have this story as well because without it, I might never have met you and I'm so, so, so endlessly glad I did.

Levi always figured the war would take his life.

He never thought it'd be quite like this though.

It should’ve been quick. A sudden affair, like his squad’s had been. Or Erwin’s. He never wasted time imagining the specifics, but he’d always thought he’d go out in one big flash, caught in a situation he’d flung himself into and couldn’t escape from.

Instead, here he sat, dying slowly as he stared out the window by his bed.

Rest in pieces indeed.

* * *

It had taken several weeks for the confetti to finally clear.

Even now, he could see traces of crepe paper strewn in the gutters, the dyes washed out by the recent rains. The streets had been a riot of color and sound for weeks after the Survey Corps returned from their final battle, once the fallen had been properly mourned. Humanity’s new-found freedom had been a glorious thing to behold – the people had reveled in it, the sudden sense of safety, of peace.

Of hope.

Levi had been happy for a reason to excuse himself from the celebrations. It all seemed so surreal at the time, the concept of freedom without so many of the people he had fought alongside to achieve it. Erwin. Mike. Petra. Gunter. Auruo. Erd. Farlan. Isabel. _So many names._ He was welcomed home as a hero, but there was so much blood on his hands. The victory wasn’t nearly as sweet when he knew the price paid to attain it.

So when his wounded ankle refused to heal properly, Levi had been glad for it. It was a good thing, he told himself – all the formal events, the galas, the ceremonies, he wasn’t cut out for that. He needed some time to rest and recuperate. Heaven knew he’d abused his body far too much in the recent years, and the ankle had been ready to give anyways. It had finally broken – properly this time – in the final expedition. After a few days of bandages and crutches, he finally let himself be seen by the medical team. Get a proper splint. Maybe a cast. Rest a few weeks. Recover.

It wasn’t supposed to get infected.

It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

But it _had_ gotten infected. The doctors had picked out the shard of dying bone, but it had been too late. The wound refused to heal – it got worse.

In the end, Levi hadn’t been grounded by the war. His own worst enemy hadn’t been the titans. 

It had been himself.

* * *

After the surgery, Levi stopped allowing guests.

The nurses hadn’t liked it, but one by one, they caved. Anyone asking to see him was politely turned aside. Hanji had thrown a fit – he’d heard their racket from all the way down the hall on more than one occasion, but he had been adamant.

And after an incident involving the maneuver gear and a broken window in a nearby room, the restraining order had kept them at a much safer distance.

He preferred the quiet anyways. He didn’t do much more than sleep, if he could help it – it helped him forget.

In his dreams, he was still normal.

Still whole.

* * *

The blinds were pulled open with a hiss and Levi’s eyes snapped open.

“Good morning, Corporal Ackerman! How are you?”

Levi propped himself up on the pillows and flicked a glare at the chipper young woman. He didn’t recognize the face. Must be new. “Stable,” Levi replied. “Minimal bleeding, no signs of necrotic tissue, no redness or inflammation, the pain is manageable.” He’d been adding that last part for over a week now – he greatly disliked the painkillers. “I’ll clean the wound momentarily, you may leave everything by the bed.”

“That’s good to hear, Corporal,” the nurse beamed. “I’ll make sure you have everything you need. Breakfast will be ready shortly.”

“And please make sure to deny all visi – ah.” The door slammed shut.

* * *

When the door opened again, it wasn’t the nurse.

“Eren?” Levi hissed, taking in the dark hair, the green eyes, the tender smile – and recoiling. 

“Hello, Corporal,” Eren murmured. He’d had the good sense not to bring flowers, and he set the wound-care materials on the bedside table before sitting in the chair by the bed. “I heard you weren’t feeling too well.”

“I told the staff that I didn’t want visitors,” Levi growled. Damn shitty nurses.

“I’d heard that too,” Eren replied, carding his fingers through his hair sheepishly. “Learned first-hand, once or twice, actually. Figured I’d try my luck again today – and here I am.”

And here he was. Healthy, happy, and whole, although Levi knew Eren’s wounds left different kinds of scars. Had he gotten taller? The time Levi had spent away had washed away the familiarity enough for him to see some of the differences. The years had changed Eren, sharpened the shapes, strengthened the lines. He wasn’t some crazy-eyed brat in dungeon chains anymore.

“Here you are,” Levi agreed sourly. “Satisfied?”

“Not particularly,” Eren replied.

Of course not.

“How’ve you been, Corporal?”

How had Levi been? Levi wasn’t really sure he felt anything anymore. The days that had passed were empty, just like he was.

“I’ve been in a hospital,” Levi replied coldly. “How do you think I’ve been?”

“I was afraid you’d say something like that,” Eren murmured.

“At least I’m not dead yet.”

That was more of a lie than Levi cared to admit.

“...why haven’t you wanted visitors, Corporal?”

“I'm tired, Eren. Maybe because I wanted some fucking peace and quiet, have you considered that?” Levi snapped. 

“I have.” In that moment, Eren sounded ancient. Older than the walls themselves. “We’re all tired. But none of us have vanished off the face of the planet. Why don’t you want to see us anymore?”

_It’s not that I don’t want to see you._

“Well?”

_I don’t want to be seen._

“What makes you privy to my personal life?”

“You’re our friend,” Eren cut back, slamming both hands on the edge of the bed. “You’re important to us, and we’re worried about you. Commander Zoe hasn’t been themselves for weeks, and the entire special ops squad has been anxious for you to return. There’s still so much to do out there – we _need_ you.”

“Well, best get over that horseshit quickly,” Levi snapped. “What makes you think I’ll be coming back?”

Eren’s jaw dropped. “You’re not coming back?”

Levi regret the words immediately. He looked away.

“Corporal,” Eren breathed. “…what happened?”

Levi felt that Eren’s gaze like a physical touch, as if the weight of his attentions left an actual impression as it traced over him, mapping out the contours of his body like he would some distant horizon, like the oceans he always dreamed about.

Levi felt when Eren’s gaze came to rest on the thin sheets, pondering at what lay beneath them. Eren’s eyes widened.

Eren gasped. “You lost your…?”

“ _Get out_ ,” Levi snarled.

Eren left.

* * *

After a week, Eren did not return.

Levi’s only visitors were the nurses doing their rounds – and Levi was glad. He didn’t want to think about Eren, Hanji, his squad. There were too many ghosts hiding in his past.

And maybe he was one of them. Not quite dead yet, but no longer capable of interacting with the living.

The days passed slowly, but the few stern words he had left for the new nurse – no visitors, under any circumstances, under pain of death – seemed to have done their job. So when the door opened and Eren walked in, Levi was less than mentally prepared.

He was even less prepared for the wood carving Eren shoved into his lap. It took him a moment to process, and his fingers traced over the figure – the uneven curves, the rough edges – of the foot in his hands before some semblance of a thought occurred to him.

“This looks like shit,” Levi grumbled, running the edge of his thumb of the heel, feeling the splinters.

Eren winced, but his face remained impassive as he shrugged. “Good thing I’ll be getting lots of practice then.”

Levi scowled. “Don’t bother.”

“Why not?”

_Because I don’t want it. Because I got what I deserved, and I won’t try to fight it. After all the blood I’ve shed, I don’t deserve to walk the fucking earth._

“Because I won’t need it.”

“Of course you’ll need it,” Eren muttered. “Don’t you ever want to walk again?” 

“Can’t you see I’m tired, Eren?” Levi asked, slamming his hands on his lap. The wooden foot bounced off the bed and fell onto the floor with a loud clatter. “Haven’t I fought enough? I don’t need another battle. I’m done.”

Eren stared at him. “So you’re giving up then.” It wasn’t a question. It didn’t have to be.

The answer was obvious.

Eren scooped the carving into his hands and left without a word.

* * *

When Eren returned, one week later, the leg had grown.

Levi stared – glowered – at the carving in Eren’s hands when the young man entered. This one was different, the lines smoother, the curves more natural, and the carving progressed from the ankle into a rudimentary calf.

“I need to measure this,” Eren said calmly. When Levi leveled a glare at him, Eren stood firm. Unflinching.

“Hell no,” Levi replied.

Eren took a calculated step forward, then another.

“I may be an amputee, Eren,” Levi growled, “but I can still kick your ass.”

“There’s no need for that.” Another step. Levi could practically see the battle-analysis running through Eren’s head as he approached. His hands twitched.

“There’s about to be.”

Levi was ready when Eren lunged. He deflected the swipe easily, though he still felt a bit slow. It was the rest of Eren Levi was unprepared for – Eren sprawled across Levi’s legs with a huff, stomach to his knees, and try as Levi might, he could not get Eren to budge.

“Get off me, you ass!” Levi snapped. “If I lose circulation in my good leg, they’ll cut that one off too.”

“This won’t take long,” Eren chuckled, bucking as Levi tried – in vain – to kick him off. He placed the wooden carving next to Levi’s calves and eyed it carefully, noting where the bones lay, where the curves shifted, gauging carefully the distances he would need to remember to make this right. When he finished, he stood, dodged a punch, and settled into the chair in the corner, grinning smugly to himself the entire time.

Levi seethed silently,

Eren noticed, and his grin grew wider. “If you want to kick my ass, Corporal,” he smirked, sliding a set of chisels from his pocket, “you’ll have to catch me first.”

And with that, he went to work, shelling out the center in thick, splintered chips. Every now and again, he’d look back to Levi’s legs, brow furrowed, mouth twisted in a thoughtful knot, and then he’d return, scraping away at the edges, hollowing out the core. He worked silently, his hands slowly reshaping the wood to his command, and Levi watched silently, wondering why the young man would work so hard to waste so much.

When Eren left, Levi peered over the edge of the bed, checking the floor for the mess that he surely would’ve left. This was Eren, after all. The kid had always been a mess.

The floor was spotless.

* * *

“Levi.”

The leg was finished.

Eren had outdone himself this time. It wasn’t _his_ leg, but it was clearly _a_ leg, and the wood’s oiled surface gleamed faintly in the afternoon sunlight that peered through the window, painting the room with warmth. The foot was clearly a foot now too, not that rough mess Eren had brought in the first time. He was improving.

What a waste.

“No.”

“Just try it on.”

“No.”

Eren stepped forward and knelt by the bed, and Levi looked away. He knew what awaited him if he looked down – the years had not tempered Eren’s stubborn streak. He could feel those green fires burning into him.

“Corporal.”

“I said no,” Levi snapped.

“I can’t accept that.”

When Eren reached out, pulled Levi’s legs to the edge of the bed and over it, Levi said nothing. He stared, out the window, as Eren hooked fingers beneath the hem of the hollow fabric and rolled it upon itself, over and over, higher and higher, finding nothing within. He watched the birds wheeling in the distant sky as Eren unwound the bandages; he flinched – not from pain – when warm fingers ghosted over the scars that had been left behind.

“Will you try it, Corporal? I won’t force it on you.”

Levi held out his leg. “Do what you want.”

It didn’t fit. It was too shallow and too narrow in all the wrong places, and the wood pressed against the bones and the scars in all the wrong ways. Wrong. Why was Eren doing this? Didn’t he see that Levi belonged here? His body was a cage he would never escape from.

“Where does it hurt?”

Levi grimaced. “The front. The end. It’s too high on my knee and too tight along the…”

He refused to call it a stump. He swallowed the word. Eren nodded. “I think I can fix that.

Levi watched as Eren settled back in the chair, tools in hand, cloth on the floor. He watched those tan, unscarred fingers slide across the wood, deepening the curves, the hollows, with a practiced precision Levi never would’ve expected of him. Eren had been fire and fury, an inferno damned to burn and die like a falling star. Levi hadn’t expected Eren would make it to the end – and neither had Eren, but Levi couldn’t know that. Peace had changed them both. It seemed to have a way of putting out fires.

When Eren seemed satisfied, he knelt before Levi again, offering the leg. Levi complied. Felt the ground beneath him, felt the pain all over. Shook his head.

“Still wrong.”

Eren took the leg. “I’ll need different tools then.” He stood, gathered his things, walked to the door.

“Eren.”

The young man paused.

“Why are you doing this?”

And when Eren turned to look at him, Levi met his gaze. There was no fire there. Only green. 

“You used to fly, once,” Eren murmured.

He turned and left.

* * *

He was back the next day, with pale shadows under his eyes and a yawn on his lips. His skin seemed to hold the light of the fire he’d worked beside so late into the night.

“Here,” Eren said, holding something to Levi. A single sock, cut and seamed without a heel. The stitches were uneven, but so tiny Levi could hardly feel them – he wondered briefly if, without his healing abilities, Eren’s hand would’ve been in such pristine condition this morning. He undid the bandages and slid the sock on without an argument.

They had died on his lips in the night.

“And the leg?” Levi asked coolly, moving to sit at the edge of his bed.

Eren smiled wearily and pulled his handiwork from his pack.

“Had to make a few changes, based on your feedback,” he murmured, setting the leg before Levi. It stood on its own – Levi was surprised. “The bottom is lower now, and padded, though you’ll be bearing most of your weight on the sides and not the end. Hopefully. I relieved the pressure in the front. Lowered it for your knee, kept the support on the sides… give it a try?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Not really,” Eren grinned.

It… fit. Not perfectly, but it fit, the wood giving way for his bones and his scars in all the right places, putting solid ground beneath him.

“Want to try standing?”

“How the hell do you plan on keeping it on?”

Eren grinned widely. “I had some ideas for that,” he replied, fishing for something in his pack again. 

He pulled out a gear harness, and for once, Levi had nothing to say.

“It’s one of yours,” Eren murmured, untangling the straps with quick, deft motions. “I modified it, a little, to add more support around the ankle and the heel, but… I think it’ll work.”

“You came up with this?” Levi asked. His voice sounded strange, even to him, but Eren nodded.

 _Not bad._ He swallowed the words.

“Will you try it?”

It was an awkward affair, getting into the harness again. To Levi, it felt familiar and foreign all at once, moving in ways he hadn’t in a long, long time. Had he always had to fasten the straps so tight? His body felt smaller somehow. Like it had shrunken to fit his soul. 

But the pressure was also far too familiar, like a second skin he’d missed wearing. Eren helped fasten the buckles around his ankles, testing the straps around his feet.

When Levi lifted his leg, the foot stayed.

Eren beamed.

“Can I…?”

Levi’s arms shook as he shifted his weight forward, planting his foot and Eren’s foot unsteadily onto the floor. He felt the pain immediately, the old wounds resisting as the pressure on the limb increased. _How does this work again?_ He pushed, and his body lurched upright.

Eren gaped, and in that moment, Levi swore the smile that dawned on Eren’s face could outshine the stars.

 _Concentrate._ A foot left the floor. A single step.

The ground was steady, but his legs were not – there were weaknesses that hadn’t been there before. His knees buckled.

Strong hands caught him before Levi hit the floor, and Eren returned him gently to the bedside. “Still needs work,” the young man muttered, quickly undoing the straps. Had Eren seen his pain? Levi thought he’d kept it hidden.

“There’s no point to any of this if it hurts too much to stand. Let me work on it again tonight, and I’ll bring it back tomorrow.”

And then he was gone, leaving Levi’s mind whirling. Eren may have seen it as a failure, but to Levi, it had been anything but.

He had stood.

* * *

When the knock came at the door, bright and early the next morning, Levi was ready. 

The look on Eren’s face when Levi swung the door open, waiting there to greet him, was worth more than gold.

“Levi, you…?” Eren’s eyes took in the empty bed, the chair in the middle of the room, the distance between the spaces, and they filled with wonder.

“Did you bring it?” Levi asked, the barest hint of a smile playing at his lips. “I’m getting real sick of this hopping shit.”

Eren cracked a smile as he helped Levi to his seat. When he pulled the leg from his bag, Levi's breath caught.

"I... had some time on my hands."

The inner curve of the leg was laced with carvings, images of birds taking flight, wings catching on the spirals of the rising wind.

"Eren," Levi breathed. "When did you learn all this?"

Eren slid his fingers through the hair at his neck, glancing away, looking sheepish. "It's been kinda quiet lately, since the Corps left for the expedition."

Levi stared. _Eren had stayed?_

"Try it on, Corporal," Eren urged, pulling Levi from his thoughts. 

Their fingers brushed as Eren passed the leg to Levi, and Levi tried not to think about how smooth Eren's fingers were, how warm.

When Levi stood, he did not shake.

* * *

They practiced every day, and the work was cruel. Time had not been kind to Levi's body, and the road to recovery left him aching in the night, muscles too sore to move. Levi paid the price for every step he took.

But he was taking steps.

They practiced every day, and Eren was endlessly patient. He worked tirelessly, attacking every flaw in his design, perfecting it with every layer he stripped away. When Levi screamed at his own weakness and his pain, Eren listened. He walked every step, hands outstretched, righting every stumble, catching every fall. 

And if Levi's hand lingered for too long in his, Eren said nothing.

They practiced every day, and Levi saw the changes. As the days turned into weeks, he no longer staggered – though the limp would always be there. The distances grew longer, his steps surer, until Eren was joining him for short walks around the infirmary, talking of everything and nothing while the days bled away.

“Thank you,” Levi muttered, letting Eren help him back into the hospital bed after a long afternoon of practice.

Eren was confused. “For your leg?”

Levi stared at him.

“…That too.”

* * *

“Come with me.”

They were the first words out of Eren’s mouth that morning, spilling out in his excitement as soon as Levi had opened the door.

“There’s something new I want to try today.”

Levi followed, a steadying hand resting on Eren’s shoulder blade as they went.

“We’re riding?” Levi asked, alarmed, when they arrived at the stables.

Eren looked back at him and grinned, making Levi’s face warm. “Not far,” he replied. “But I made sure to get your horse from the base last night, so I think you’ll be okay.”

“Think you know everything, do you?” Levi grumbled.

“Not everything. Just enough.”

They rode carefully, but fast enough to remind Levi just how much he missed it – the speed, the breeze on his lips, the sun on his neck. There were a lot of things he missed, Levi realized, like the smell of rain in the grass, and late nights with the squad-leaders, and tea. The bite of adrenaline in his blood, the throb of his pulse in his ears, the thrum of a fight, a sense of meaning, of purpose.

He had lost sight of that. 

Now it rode ahead of him, hair gleaming in the sunlight, sitting tall and proud and just out of reach.

They pulled to a halt when they reached a small forest. Two sets of aerial maneuver gear lay ready on a low-hanging branch.

Levi’s stomach rolled.

“Oh, no. Eren, no,” Levi said, drawing his horse back. Maybe he could make it to town without falling. “This isn’t happening.”

There was a gleam in Eren’s eyes – it sparkled wickedly as he shrugged into his own gear. “What’s wrong, Corporal?" Levi was silent, his worries thick on his tongue. "Afraid I’ll outmatch you?”

“Like hell,” Levi snapped. He leapt down from his horse and took the landing on his knee, rising without aid to level Eren with a glare.

“Hand me my gear.”

Eren’s grin burned with triumph.

Levi’s confidence, however, came back down a few notches when they were finally ready to start. Eren was off like a shot, whooping in his glee, but Levi held back, thumbs on the triggers, anxiety clawing at his stomach.

Eren landed on a branch a few meters above him.

“Come on, Corporal,” Eren called, holding out his hand like he’d done so many times before. He could be standing just a few feet away. “What do you have to lose?”

_What more had he already lost?_

* * *

The first few maneuvers were the hardest. When did something that had been so familiar to him become so foreign? Every move was cautious now. Reluctant. Levi could feel the loss in the control he once had, a loss in the freedom.

It was exactly as he’d feared. “You satisfied yet?” Levi called into the shadows. He’d had enough.

The branch beneath him shivered as Eren landed next to him, grappling hooks snapping into place with a whirring hiss.

“To be perfectly honest,” Eren murmured, “no.” Warm hands settled on Levi’s shoulders, coaxing a shiver down his spine. “You’re holding out on me, Levi.”

Not Corporal. _Levi._

Levi’s thumbs snapped down on the triggers, and with a growl, he leapt into empty space.

* * *

There was never much room to think when he was like that.

Each movement became simplified, instinctive – every shattered fragment of his being snapping into perfect clarity. Levi soared, carving through the air in tight spirals Eren could never hope to perform, and with each one, his body screamed and simmered with the high he’d craved for so long.

He could almost hear the singing of the steel in his hands.

This. _This_ is what he missed the most. Every movement, every pivot, snap, and rotation, every second of the pain and the blood-rush and the _life_ …

It wasn’t perfect – far from it – but it was enough.

Eren was waiting for him at the end.

“I’ve wanted to see that for a long time,” Eren murmured. His eyes were alight with something Levi had never seen before.

Levi eyed the young man smugly, body still as light as a feather, the blood still pounding in his ears. He’d be feeling this tomorrow – but he didn’t really care. “See something you like, Jaeger?” he teased.

“I do, actually.”

Levi’s heart lodged in his throat. When Eren moved behind Levi, Levi felt his skin catch fire.

“You fly so beautifully, Levi,” Eren breathed, the words curling warmly across the shell of Levi's ear.

To be perfectly honest, Levi never thought he’d fly again. 

But when he turned around and pulled Eren’s lips to his, Levi felt like he had wings.


	2. Soaring Skyward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few months later...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I promised you this would appear shortly after I'd published the first part. Of course, my muses decided I'd better make a fool of myself - I have discovered that I am not, as much as I'd like to be, a writer of my word, and for that, I apologize.
> 
> Edit: I seem to have been making readers cry, of late (HAPPY TEARS, I SWEAR THEY'RE HAPPY), so I can't help but feel obligated to suggest having some tissues nearby. Or a shirt sleeve, perhaps. I don't know.
> 
> Despite that, please enjoy the continuation of Blackbird. :)
> 
> Edited by my lovely friend and thoughtful beta, [ChristmasRivers](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ChristmasRivers) ~ thank you! :D

A small bell rung quietly when the man entered the shop.

The shopkeeper eyed the visitor curiously, noting the civilian clothing under the military-issue gear, the hard build and the small, scarred hands. The man walked with a limp, though most would hardly notice.

“How might I help you today?” the shopkeeper asked.

The man looked up.

"I'm looking for a pair of rings.”

The shopkeeper smiled knowingly. “I have just the thing.”

They shone brilliantly in the morning sunshine, the light reflecting off the narrow gold bands so that they gleamed like tiny stars. They reminded the man of the thin threads of gold in his lover’s eyes – how they hid beneath the green until he got close, too close to resist.

His hands brushed at his pockets. The emptiness in his coin-purse never weighed more.

“…do you have anything in silver?”

But the shopkeeper was already moving, capturing the lights in a slim velvet pouch, the fabric rich and soft to the touch as it was pressed into the man’s fingers.

“For you, sir, no price,” the shopkeeper murmured.

“I insist.”

The door in the back of the shop burst open, and two children ran through, shouting and tumbling across the wooden floor, laughter brighter than the sun. A woman eyed them from the doorway, a smile on her face, her belly swollen with expectation.

The shopkeeper smiled. 

“You’ve already paid.”

* * *

The apartment behind the bakery was small, but it was enough. The baker and his wife were kind, and they appreciated the help. The kitchen had never been cleaner.

Levi appreciated the space even more. Eren had told him that his room at headquarters was still unoccupied, if he ever wanted it, but Levi knew better.

The place was crammed with ghosts – dead or otherwise – he wasn’t yet ready to face.

And he enjoyed baking. The early mornings, the smell of bread and flour and heat, the warmth of the ovens, the tender press of the dough beneath his fingers. He had been terrible at it, at first, but he quickly grew better with time. And Eren was always delighted to be his taste-tester.

It felt strange to Levi, to learn a skill that focused solely on creation, rather than destruction. He understood, all at once, exactly why Eren had taken up carpentry in his time away from the barracks.

Sawdust. Flour. They were better than water ever could be at washing the stains away.

* * *

Eren was waiting for him when he returned, laden with the weight of gold and whispered hope.

“Almost thought I’d have to go looking for you,” Eren grinned, pulling Levi into his arms. He smelled of warmth – as usual – and his hands of cedar, and, as always, something Levi could never name, but something so distinctly _Eren_ that it made Levi smile as he tucked his face into Eren’s neck.

“You think I’d break the leg so easily?” 

“Well, after what you managed to do yours…” Levi could hear the smile in Eren’s voice.

“Brat.”

Quiet laughter shook Eren’s chest.

“I was just doing some shopping,” Levi murmured. “Something I wanted to make sure to have, if I ever needed it.”

“Oh?” Eren pulled away, eyes sparkling with mischief. “Can I ask what that might be?”

“Nope,” Levi replied, removing his cravat and replacing it with an apron. The dough for the next day’s pastries would have to rise overnight. Preparing it would give Levi a chance to hide the flush that was rising on his cheeks. Damn him and his smile. If Levi wasn’t careful, he’d be on one knee before the day was out. “What has you here so early, anyways? I thought Hanji would’ve had you at the reconstruction zones until you passed out?”

And Eren’s face fell.

“I got new orders from the Commander,” he murmured, sinking into the chair beside him as if the sky itself sat on his shoulders. “They found titans to the far west, and… they need the help. Commander Zoe wants me on the next expedition.”

Levi set the bowl down on the counter, added the flour, the eggs, the salt. The rings were like two anvils in his pocket, but Eren could not know that Levi was drowning. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Eren stared at the letter in his hands, the orders he could not deny, and Levi watched him burn, the sounds of the weeks and months spent together crashing down around his ears, making his breath catch in his throat. All those moments caught in candlelight as Eren sketched, over and over, what he thought the sea would look like. The crumpled papers falling to the floor like snow, captured images that never seemed quite right.

Eren couldn’t see the ocean Levi saw in his eyes. He needed to find his own.

_“I want to see and understand the world outside… I don't want to die inside these walls without knowing what's out there!”_

Levi couldn’t keep him here. Eren couldn’t stay. 

“Come with me.”

The wooden spoon slipped from his fingers and clattered loudly on the floor. It didn’t sound like gear-blade Levi had, for a terrifying moment, imagined it to be.

“You could come with me, Levi. They could use your help, and then I wouldn’t have to – you wouldn’t be…”

Levi chuckled and the sound was flat, even to his ears. Harsh. “They couldn’t use me, Eren. You know that.”

“They wouldn’t even have to know! You already walk so well, and you ride, and if anyone noticed the limp, you could just say it’s the old wound and they’d believe– ” 

“And what if I needed to run? Or what if the leg breaks? Have you thought of that?” Levi cut back. “My station, my rank – people would be depending on me to bring them home, Eren. To lie to their faces and fail them when they needed me most? I can’t do that.”

Eren was silent. The orders quivered in his hands.

“Then tell them, Levi, and just…”

Levi bent, picked up the spoon, and carried it to the sink. The feeling of the water on his hands was at the same time too much and not enough to ground him.

But Eren’s hand on his shoulder was enough. Was always enough.

“Come with me, Levi,” Eren murmured. His forehead pressed against the crown of Levi’s head, his nose brushed the short black hairs, his breath skimming, far too warm, down the back of Levi’s neck. “I’ll be selfish, since you refuse. Don’t come for the special ops squad – Mikasa can handle them. Don’t come for the duty, for the obligation. Just… be there for me. And let me be there for you.”

Levi couldn’t understand why anyone needed an ocean to drown in when he could so easily drown on dry land. He exhaled, and with the air came his surrender.

“…when do we leave?”

* * *

Three weeks.

They only had three weeks – and feeling the time trickling through his fingers felt like standing on thin ice and watching the cracks spread.

For Levi, the days ripped by in a blur of fatigue and sweat, the hours following dawn crammed with ceaseless motion. He walked – for hours – and when he didn’t walk, he rode until the sound of metal on the ground made his bones rattle. And, more than either of these, Levi flew, reintroducing himself to the sky with a ferocity that carved bruises deep into his skin.

Weakness was a luxury Levi could not afford.

“You’re getting better,” Eren panted as they collapsed together beneath the shade of a tall pine. Their lunches sat unnoticed as they paused to catch their breath.

“Still not good enough.”

“Hush. You’re getting better, and that’s what counts,” Eren replied, murmuring the words into the back of Levi’s hand before pressing his lips against the lattice of thin scars. He tasted of salt and earth and faintly of flour. “I’m proud of you.”

Levi hummed in response, his eyes drifting closed in the glow of the moment as he let his head tip back. “It feels like you’re just trying to get revenge for all those years of training. Was I this bad to you?”

Eren’s muted laughter blew warm shivers across Levi’s skin. “Hardly. You were much worse.”

Levi nodded approvingly. “Good. I never would’ve forgiven myself if I had been this lenient.”

“You’re right, I’m being much too gentle,” Eren snickered. “Drop and give me twenty.”

“Oh?” Levi prompted, cocking an eyebrow as a grin flickered at the corners of his lips. “And just where, _exactly,_ would you like that twenty?”

Something about kissing Eren made time seem infinite, as if the seconds that passed between their lips would somehow be replaced. As if the flame that sparked beneath Levi’s fingertips would somehow burn eternally, fueled by something Levi couldn’t name.

As the moments slipped away, Levi grew weaker in only one respect.

Eren always managed to leave him breathless.

* * *

The expedition was to leave at noon, and the soldiers were to arrive shortly after sunrise, but Hanji was up long before dawn.

Silence gnawed hungrily at the fissures in their thoughts, hissing like acid against everything they needed to be sure as steel. The fire burned low in the hearth as they studied the maps for the thousandth time, reviewing the formations, pouring over the reports, searching for that one, final detail that’d finally set their heart at ease. 

They’d been searching since nightfall.

Every nightfall for months.

Erwin would’ve been certain. He always seemed certain. As their ink-stained fingers traced the fading lines, Hanji wondered if Erwin had ever known this kind of doubt.

They supposed it didn’t matter anymore. The choice was Hanji’s now, and the lines were drawn. They had done all they could.

…Still. They couldn’t shake the feeling that something was missing.

“Commander Zoe.”

Hanji jumped, knocking papers across the floor. 

“Eren?” Their gaze spilled from the blank expression on the young man’s face to the letter in his hands to the window, where dawn was just beginning to press whispers of light along the horizon. “What are you doing here? You should be sleeping.”

“I need a word with you, Commander.”

With a weary sigh, Hanji knelt to begin picking up the papers, one by one. “Right now really isn’t the best time, Eren.” The words on the papers were beginning to bleed together, melting slowly off the pages as their eyes struggled to focus. _So tired…_ “Can it wait?”

Eren ducked his head, running a hand nervously across the back of his neck. He fumbled. “Well…”

“You can make him wait all damn day, if you want to.”

Hanji’s heart caught. 

“The kid’s developed some semblance of patience, though I don’t know when or how. Certainly wasn’t under my leadership.”

Papers fluttered from shock-numbed fingers and spiraled gently to the floor as the voice grew louder, terse footsteps echoing crisply across the cold stone floor.

Those sleepless eyes, the white cravat, that disapproving scowl. Hanji took it all in, their breath rising quick and shallow in their throat.

"You haven't changed a bit, I see,” Levi muttered, taking in the chaos with obvious disdain. “Couldn't keep your shithole contained in the lab? This place is a disaster waiting to– ”

The words were drowned in the melee of their arms. 

“I figured you wouldn’t be able to resist the mess,” Hanji chuckled, laughter shaking down their shoulders as Levi struggled – though not as hard as he might have, once – to break free.

“Should’ve seen his face when I mentioned it,” Eren chuckled. “Nearly spit his tea.”

Hanji eyed Eren curiously. “Eren, the common room should be empty at this hour – get some rest, you’ll be wanting it when we leave.”

The snap of Eren’s salute was his only reply.

“I thought you hadn’t allowed visitors,” Hanji said, bending to pick up the papers again as Eren’s footsteps echoed down the hall. 

Levi wandered the room slowly, feeling like he stirred ashes with every step. Phantoms mingled with the dust on the shelves, the books with spines unbroken, they flickered in the torchlight that filled the distances that spanned more than space. He felt their touch – they lingered here.

“He wasn’t allowed either,” Levi grumbled. He brushed a finger along a dusty shelf and grimaced. “But he never really took no for an answer. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

Hanji murmured their assent. Eren’s stubbornness… Hanji had doubted they’d ever see the day when Eren would deny his dreams. And then for him to request to stay behind…

They supposed it made a lot more sense now.

“Hanji, I…”

Hanji studied the papers, willing the words into focus again. “Lost your leg?”

Levi stared – the blue iron of his gaze had not dulled, as Hanji had feared it would; the weight of that gaze had been one they had missed for far too long - but now they couldn't bring themselves to meet it. “Well, yes, but that’s…”

Paused. Breathed, exhaling exhaustion and inhaling ghosts. 

“Hanji, I’m sorry.”

The letters blurred.

“I should never… I abandoned you. And I shouldn’t have. And you had to follow Erwin and I should’ve been at your side and instead…”

The words seemed to lodge somewhere between his lungs and his lips and as they died, he choked on their corpses. 

“And I know, as I am now, I can’t serve like I used to and it’s well within your rights to command me to stay – I’d understand – I’d just… ”

_I just don’t want to lose anyone else. Not you. Not him._

The hand that settled on his shoulder was surprisingly gentle.

“I’m glad you’re back, Levi.”

Their voice was thick.

“I’m glad to be back… wasn’t really sure I would be.”

“I know.”

And when silence began to pool again between the cracks in Hanji’s thoughts, it finally felt right.

* * *

This must be what it felt like to fly.

The air was thick with whoops and hollers, the nicker of horses and the thunder of the stampede and the rumbling thread of cartwheels churning through the unpaved earth – and beneath it all, within it all, the electricity that shivered through Levi’s bones, tasting of something he could no longer name.

He had forgotten.

Or maybe he had never known before. Because some of this felt familiar – the wind filling his ears and tracing errant patterns on his skin, the snap of emerald green and the flutter of sewn wings – but some of it felt entirely new. Levi couldn’t remember the last time color had seemed so vivid. Was this the same sun that shone within the walls? The world seemed so much brighter out here, bright enough, light enough, to set aflame something deep within him.

The smile that rose to his lips shone with that same light. When he caught sight of the question in Eren’s eyes, he smiled wider.

“It’s nothing,” he said.

But it was everything.

It was the way Eren’s lips parted into a wide, wondering grin, the way his excitement crackled from his every edge and curve. It was the color of the sun on his skin; the deft, unmarked hands that released the reins and caught hold of the wind as he let out a whoop and rode off like a shot; the laughter that floated above the chaos of soldiers surging forward, soldiers no longer but rather birds flying somewhere where the winter could not reach them. 

It was the way Eren somehow managed to be both the force that held Levi to the earth and the light that sent him soaring far above it.

_“You fly so beautifully, Levi.”_

With Eren as his wings, how could he not?

* * *

When Eren slept, Levi got a better idea of his real size.

Eren awake was larger than life, the shadow of his presence stretching longer, the weight of his words hitting deeper, than anyone’s had a right to. Eren awake was a beacon whose light stretched for miles, fires burning long into the night.

But when Eren slept, he curled inward at the edges, tucking his elbows into his ribs and a hand beneath his chin, shoulders hunched, brow furrowed. In the light of Levi’s lantern, it almost seemed as though Eren was holding himself together along the fault-lines as he slept, hoping to heal the fissures by morning.

Eren’s tools – and Levi’s leg – lay where Eren had left them for the evening. He had fallen into the habit of working on the leg every week or so, smoothing the inside, shaving away layers or adding thin padding wherever necessary. A second one, a spare, had slowly begun to take shape during the evenings spent by the campfires. He and Armin had some ideas for a movable ankle, he’d said. Levi’s lips quirked at the thought. 

Tonight a new piece, a slim circle of marbled wood, also sat by Eren’s pillow, forgotten in the night’s hush. 

_“…it’s from a tree with little black fruit. Armin brought it back for me.”_

_“What are you going to do with it?”_

_“I… I’m not sure yet.”_

The flush along his ears had said otherwise, but Levi hadn’t questioned it. The memory still made him smile, and the smile didn’t fade as he gently pulled his fingers free from Eren’s, shrugged into his leg, strapped in with a wince, and rose for the night-watch.

* * *

Before the war had ended, Levi had always insisted on the midnight watch, when the night was the longest and the air was still.

Let the rookies get what sleep they could, he had said. He was up then anyways. It really wouldn’t be a problem.

Really, he just wanted to be alone. To stare into the darkness and dare the darkness to stare back.

And it probably had, Levi mused, if the long winter had been anything to go by. It had been almost a year since his last watch.

Yet after only one night’s sleep on the hard earth… here he stood again.

The night was calm now, and the breeze cool, and the stars looked the same as they always had – bright and distant and unchanging. Constant, if not in their placement, then their presence. It comforted him, to find them there again. He couldn't see nearly as many within the walls.

“May I join you, Corporal?”

Levi smirked, his gaze never leaving the night sky as Mikasa drew near. “Shouldn't I be asking you that?” It was technically her watch, after all; he hadn't been assigned to a watch in months.

He wasn’t surprised he hadn’t heard her approach, but he was surprised when she sat down beside him.

“A lot of us didn't think you'd come back.”

Levi exhaled, letting his eyes drift closed. The spectral imprint of the lantern’s light floated slowly across his vision, blotting out what might have been stars. “Get straight to the point, do you?"

Beside him, he felt Mikasa shrug. The silence grew.

“…I didn't think I'd be coming back either,” Levi muttered, letting the shadows swallow the truth.

Mikasa shifted uncomfortably. “But now that you have, you should take…” 

“Don’t.”

He felt her flinch. He sighed.

“The special ops squad is yours now,” Levi murmured, studying Mikasa solemnly. The years had changed her too, just as they had for Eren, and though the lantern light burned dim, Levi could see both her burden and her strength, even as she worried at the old red scarf around her neck. “You can protect them far better than I ever could.”

Her arguments sat heavily on the corners of her lips. Furrowed at the rise of her brow.

“I don't know if you've heard yet–” he began.

“Eren told me.”

“Then you know I'm not the right soldier for the job. You are. You’ve earned it.”

He didn’t watch to see if the words hit home; words were never his forte anyways. There had always been others to fill the silences for him – but tonight he was on his own. 

“There were a lot of things I regret when I left the Survey Corps,” Levi added after a moment, speaking the words not to the young woman at his side, but to the night wind and the pine trees and the dust between the stars. Maybe they’d carry the message for him.

“But leaving you to succeed me… was not one of them.”

There was a pause.

“Thank you.”

Levi scoffed, then brushed his hands and after a moment’s effort, stood. “Don't thank me,” he said, heading back to his tent. “It was your doing.”

If she had a reply, the snap of the campfire swallowed it before the words could leave her lips. 

“Levi.”

The sound of his name caught him off guard. When he turned back to look he found Mikasa watching him, her face cut between the contrast of the fire and the night.

“You’ll protect him, right?”

Her gaze was gentle. The words were a prayer.

Levi paused. Turned fully. With his eyes on the soldier before him and his back to the dark, he snapped a salute, standing firm, fist over his heart. 

“With my life.”

* * *

When the first flare streaked across the sky, Levi found the months had not dulled the ice that hissed through his veins at the sight of scarlet rising on the wind.

“Eren, _go!_ ” Hanji bellowed. Chaos bit at the fear that crackled through the air. 

And Eren was off, burning across the plains like a falling star, with Levi right behind him.

“Got my back?” Eren called, a hand loosening on the reins and drifting upwards, the motion unconscious, familiar and instinctive and terrifying all at once.

“Of course.”

Instead of rising further, Eren’s hand reached out. Their fingers touched, for the briefest of moments. A tiny infinity.

"Go, love. I'll be okay.”

Then the moment was gone, sweeping Levi with it, racing towards the bleeding sky to where earthquakes fell like footsteps. And in spite of the adrenaline quickening in his veins, and the steel hardening in his core, and the red searing across his eyes, Levi believed him.

* * *

Something felt different.

Between the chaos and the song of the steel ringing endlessly in his ears, Levi felt as though the world had somehow shifted.

Beneath him, the earth rocked violently as one by one, the titans fell, dyeing the air with hissing steam and raucous cries. This was not the place for distraction, though a lifetime of violence guided him far more finely than his thoughts. 

Yet the feeling would not let him go.

Something felt different.

 _“I wanted to use you.”_ Erwin's words – spoken to Levi as his friends’ blood mingled with the rain and the mud. Even over the frantic rhythm of his pulse, they whispered up from the earth and echoed coldly in his ear.

_“Humanity needs your strength.”_

So he gave it. Under Erwin’s command, he’d become a weapon. To keep alive the dream, he would fight and kill, and die, if asked.

But live? 

And though Hanji might’ve tried to fight it, Levi would have been a tool for them too – a scalpel, something razored and precise. Something to be wielded through the aftermath, though his edge had long been dulled. The bloodstains never truly faded.

 _“Levi, please, we need your support._ I _need your support.”_ He could still hear the strike of their fist on the door to his hospital room, could still hear their struggles as they were led away.

This was different.

* * *

_“Just…"_

_"Be there for me."_

_"And let me be there for you.”_

* * *

Strange thing, fate.

Strange how, after all this time, he would gladly take up the steel again, and the air would burn with the blood he again would shed. He never thought he’d see this day.

Never thought that as lightning screamed across the sky and scarlet rained down from the heavens…

He would find someone worth living for.

* * *

And at last, there was one.

The world was quiet, quiet as the grave, and still but for the clouds of steam rising slowly towards a graying sun. The ground still quaked beneath his feet, or maybe that was just Levi – he walked as though he could not feel the earth below him. His body felt numb, but his chest ached, though he couldn’t figure out why.

Nearly obscured by the steam from countless wounds, Eren's titan knelt, and did not move.

* * *

_“No…”_

The sound that wrenched through Levi’s lips was nothing less than the sound of his soul as it tore.

“…no, no, no – No!”

And he was flying, though he could not feel the wind, though the air could not inflate his lungs and his blood had gone cold within him.

Could not feel his arms protest as he swung, drew the lines in scarlet and steel, like he’d done so many times before.

_“Just… be there for me. And let me be there for you.”_

Could not feel the heat searing down his face in tiny rivers as Eren lurched limply forward and fell into his arms.

“Eren – Eren, please. You said – you promised. _Please._ ”

Could not feel his heart stop as Eren shivered and sighed and _breathed._

“You’re shaking, love,” Eren chuckled weakly.

“Shut up.”

And they stood there, locked together, until the air around them had stilled.

* * *

The end of the world came quietly.

It rose, though no one noticed, slowly beneath their feet, pulling upwards to meet the sky where the land ended and fell sharply back to the painted waters below.

The air tasted like salt and sounded like an echo of the life that rushed in Levi’s ears.

Eren moved like he was caught in a dream – Levi watched as he slid from his horse and wandered forward, not daring to hope, all the way to the edge. He watched as the breeze winnowed through Eren's dark hair and outstretched fingers, rising beneath the wings emblazoned across his back. 

Levi's heart lurched.

When Eren returned, his eyes were lit with stars yet unrisen in the sky, filled with everything he'd searhed for all his life.

“It’s beautiful, Levi.”

And Levi smiled, because he already knew.

* * *

Chasing the cliffs down to the waters took most of the afternoon, but eventually, the harsh faces gave way. The gentle hills that took the place of the cliff-sides murmured their surrender to the shoreline as they vanished beneath the tide. 

The cry of the seabirds was quickly joined by the joyful shouts of children who knew nothing of bloodshed.

There was something in Levi’s eyes when Eren came to coax him to the water. Something in the way he chewed at his lower lip and gazed across the horizon, chin in his hands. Something in the way he started when Eren approached, in the way his fair skin burned at the sight of Eren fresh from the sea, blue waters still lapping at his laughter.

There was something, but as Eren drew near, it slipped away, as hesitant and ephemeral as the light upon the sea.

“Come on, Levi, don’t you want to see the ocean?”

And there it was again, if only for an instant, flashing in the steel-blue of Levi’s eyes. “I can see it fine from here.”

No need for Eren to know that they spoke of two separate oceans entirely.

“I mean up close,” Eren laughed. The sound sent Levi’s heart skittering.

“Maybe later,” he replied.

To Eren, Levi seemed anchored in place by some unnamable weight, distant in a way only time could reach him. It came with the scars. 

“Alright, love,” Eren whispered, pressing a kiss into Levi’s dark hair when he thought no one could see. “Later it is.”

* * *

While not impossible, the sand proved difficult to traverse for those who only had feeling in one ankle. 

Harder still were the rocks that arose farther down the coast, but Levi didn’t care. He took his time. The rocks had been worn smooth, smoother than glass, so while the footing was unstable, it didn’t hurt when he fell, and the dull bruises on his palms were worth the peace that came with distance.

The peace, however, did nothing to calm his heart.

Eren, Eren, Eren.

How to tell someone they meant more than words to express.

* * *

When the sun began to set, Hanji called Eren from the water.

“Levi’s looking for you.”

They couldn’t help but smile at the look on Eren’s face; they watched him comb the shoreline, searching, searching…

When he found the corporal, silhouetted in the blushing sky, his joy seemed capable of suspending the sun itself.

And then his face fell. “Is everything alright?” he asked, thumbing the cord around his neck as apprehension crept along his edges. “He seemed…”

Hanji only shrugged.

“See for yourself.”

* * *

“Levi.”

Levi took a deep breath. Steadied himself. Turned.

His hands shook anyways.

“Eren.”

The words he’d crafted so carefully all afternoon vanished in an instant.

“I…”

“Is everything alright?” Eren demanded. Strong hands took hold of Levi’s shoulders, and the gaze that pinned him in place left him breathless, casting him adrift in the ocean he left home to chase. “Are you hurt?” 

“What? No, I – I’m fine, I…”

There was an order to this, he knew. This was, after all, a dance as old as the world, the steps familiar to everyone – or apparently, everyone but him. He’d been doomed to mess it up from the start.

So without another word, he pulled the velvet pouch from his pocket and spilled the gold into his hands. He heard Eren’s breath catch, but he doesn’t dare look. Not if he wanted to do this right.

“Eren.”

The ocean was traced with green and gold.

“When I decided I’d follow you to the ends of the earth… I didn’t realize I’d have to prove it.”

And Eren _laughed_. The sound took Levi’s breath away, punching straight through his chest as it rang across the shoreline.

_It’s alright. You knew you never deserved him in the first place. Just close your hand and… and…_

“Levi – Levi, love, look at me.”

The palm on Levi's cheek kept him from looking away, even as the tears that traced down Eren’s face began Levi's undoing.

With his free hand, Eren pulled the cord from around his neck.

“Look.”

There used to be a key hanging there. Levi had often wondered what it must have felt like, to carry the future of humanity around his neck and the weight of the world on his shoulders. But the key was gone.

Now, there hung two marbled-wood rings, shaped by the same hands that put Levi’s feet to the ground and his heart in the clouds.

“For some reason, I couldn’t find a jewelry store,” Eren grinned, lowering the rings so they sat beside the pair of gold rings in Levi’s open palm. “Figured I’d ask for your forgiveness later.”

“They’re perfect,” Levi whispered.

“Thank you - I've had a lot of practice.”

His smile set the world on fire.

“Eren... Will you...?”

"Only if you will."

And as the sunset slipped from the spaces between them, Levi felt his spirit take flight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope that was worth the wait. :) A huge, heartfelt thank you for all of you who took the time to leave commentary, and a SUPER huge, from-the-bottom-of-my-heart thank you [seaofteeth](http://archiveofourown.org/users/seaofteeth/pseuds/seaofteeth), [Shulkie](http://archiveofourown.org/users/shulkie/pseuds/shulkie), [jaegersaint](http://archiveofourown.org/users/jaegersaint/pseuds/jaegersaint), and [cinnamon_skull](http://archiveofourown.org/users/cinnamon_skull/pseuds/cinnamon_skull) for the support, encouragement, and muse-inspiring awesomeness, as well as [ChristmasRivers](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ChristmasRivers), for loving the story so much you found the bravery to speak up, resulting in one of the best friendships I have ever known.
> 
> My fanfic tumblr is [inkshaming](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/inkshaming) \- I'd love to see you there. And as always, all feedback is lovingly appreciated! :)

**Author's Note:**

> A few weeks ago, I wrote you all and asked if you would please consider signing a petition to prevent the passing of a proposed Medicare policy that would've severely limited the kind of prosthetic care and treatment an amputee could receive.
> 
> I'm pleased and excited to announce that as of August 17, 2015, the petition has received over 100,000 signatures - more than enough to have it sent to the White House and reviewed. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who read, signed, and shared this petition - you are all angels.


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